The Critical Decade

I graduated high school in June of 2005, which was 10 years ago. Next weekend I will get married, and that will complete a decade long journey from adolescence to adulthood. It's been quite a journey and quite a critical decade. It's crazy to think that 10 years ago I was 18 and going out on my own in the world for the first time, and now, a decade later I've found my way in life and am about to settle down into married life. It was a decade full of inflection points both good and bad, and they each shaped my life in a different way.

At 18. At the beach in North Carolina.

I think years down the road I'll look back at this past decade as the defining decade of my life. Sure, my adolescence was important, and future things to come may be just as meaningful, but I postulate that the experiences of the past decade will outshine much else in the story of my life.

At 22. Graduation from college.

Life, love, self-reliance, education, work ethic, values, friendship. They all come at you very fast in those years. Just when things start to make sense, so much can change. People, cities, jobs. In the past decade I've lived in 4 cities, lived with 30 different people, held 4 jobs and moved 11 times. The only time I moved as a kid, I was a 1-year-old. I have moved more than once-a-year since then. I made great friends and watched as they slipped away. I traveled. I saw amazing things and had amazing experiences. I did things I never expected. I quit jobs. I quit relationships. I have been at the top of the mountain and at the base. But I enjoyed the ups and downs of the climb.

At 25. Visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

So here I am. At the precipice of marriage. I feel wiser than I once was, but still a fool. I know there will still be excitement, and am looking ahead towards future experiences. But the era of me against the world is over. I'll now have a teammate in life. Someone to enjoy the journey with. It's hard not to look back and wonder where I would be if some of life's randomness had unfolded just a little bit different in the past decade. But here I am, and I'm proud and happy to be here.

At 28. Married.

Sustained Success

It's time for everyone's favorite post. My annual birthday facebook post analysis. For new fans of the blog, the general process is to count the number of "happy birthday" facebook posts I get and then either gripe about it being lower than last year, or celebrate it being higher.

As you may have guessed the title "sustained success" is there because overall this was a pretty good year. In fact it's the third year in a row that I've been happy with my results since a disastrous 2011. Overall I clocked in at 42 FB posts, 2 emails, 3 texts, 2 calls, 1 set of flowers, 1 card and 3 snapchats (a first). So here is the updated chart of facebook posts that you have all been waiting a year for:

Onto the details:

Statistics
Taking out 2011 which has been deemed an outlier, I now have N=9 data points. For a first time in birthday post history I've done higher level math. The mean number of posts is 40.6, and the standard deviation is 6.63 posts. With 42 posts I'm just above average, but I think I'd have to use a T-score to know exactly what the probability of this is, which is a bit too much math.

Total friends
Last year was the first year I tracked my total number friends, since I theorized that my post number might be dependent on the number of friends I have. Last year I had 587, this year I have 590. Which means I'm losing FB friends almost as fast as I make them, and probably not a major factor in the number of posts.

Fartface
There was more than just sustained success in number of posts. I also received my third annual "happy birthday fartface" post from my friend Beth. I enjoy how she remembers to call me a fartface each year without fail.

Ray
Since profiling Ray in my 2012 birthday post I've been tracking whether my most acquaintance-ish facebook friend wishes my happy birthday. This year he came through with a simple "Happy Birthday". The guy might have 1,900 facebook friends, but the 20 minutes we spent together in 2009 must still be fresh in his memory. Thanks for keeping the faith Ray!

Double Rachel Morgans
I got a happy birthday post from BOTH Rachel Morgans I know. If there is someone I know named Rachel Morgan it's pretty much a guarantee that they will wish me happy birthday on facebook.

The self-aware poster
I did have multiple people mention this post in their birthday post. But surprisingly it turns out it's the nearly the same people who mentioned by birthday blog post last year. Which means I can safely say I have 2 people that post on my facebook because of the blog post implications.

Twitter
In other news I did tweet on my birthday that the Statute of Limitations on all my underage drinking officially expired on my birthday. That got 2 favorites, which is the only twitter birthday interaction I've ever received. I guess twitter is just not a good birthday message medium.

A late happy blog birthday

I missed the birthday of my blog once again. I always remember that it's in January, but I can never seem to remember the exact date. Anyways happy 8th birthday to the blog. I guess I never thought I would still be updating this thing 8 years later. In a way I barely am. But let's keep this thing limping along for another few years.

So let's get into the things that have become more important to me than blogging.

1) My job. I started my current job 54 weeks ago, and I really couldn't be happier. I love what I do, and the people I work for. Unfortunately it looks like my boss might get new orders (he's active duty), and his boss who is also great might retire in the next year or two. But for right now, my job rocks. Especially because I've been getting to travel more which I really enjoy. I just got back last week from Japan which was cool. Next week I'll be in DC and then in a few more weeks I'll be in Twentynine Palms, CA. It looks like this might be the year I take a run at mad Delta status.

2) My wedding. I'm getting married in June to a girl I met on FarmersOnly.Com. Just kidding it's to Carly. Planning a wedding is a lot of work. For Carly. So I've been trying to help out - she lets me lick the envelopes after she addresses them all. I do have real responsibilities, but mostly I follow the instructions of Carly.

This is where I clean dirty jeep parts

3) My house. I've done a lot to the house in the last 8 months, but it seems like there are always more projects to do. I've gotten some of the most urgent ones out of the way. Right before I left for Japan I put in a utility sink in the garage. That was a fun project because I got to use my new PVC cutters instead of a hacksaw. My next big project is building a The Cooper Howell Memorial Chicken Coop. I'm still miffed that Ann Arbor's chicken ordinance was so restrictive. Luckily San Diego has a pretty lax ordinance. Also egg prices in CA are up 30% due to the state requiring 119 square inches of space per bird. My birds will have 1,584 square inches. I might not build the coop until after the honeymoon.

Looking good in the hood

4) The Jeep. The Jeep has been keeping me busy - in a good way. Last month I started changing out all the fluids including the differentials, transmission and transfer case. Yesterday I fixed the engine temperature gauge and started work on the tachometer installation. I'm still working in my head what I'm going to do for a sound system. I love working on the jeep, and on the weekends I almost exclusively drive the Jeep because it is awesome and I love it.

5) The Cats. While no Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, the two Siamese cats we have are really growing on me. I had one in my lap today while doing my annual blog-year-in-review. The one cat likes to sit on my keyboard while I type and then sit on my chest while I sleep. It likes the warm.

So to summarize, I have a full and happy life with no need to use a blog as an emotional crutch or fill the major stints of boredom. But I guess the same could be said about me in 2007 when I started blogging. The beer, roommates, and schoolwork was just replaced by something more real life. But I'll keep trying to blog, not because you want me to, but because I want to.

Watching the days go by

Yesterday was a great average day. In the history of days that will ultimately be forgettable, yesterday was quite memorable. Just the type of normal boring day that should be blogged about because I eventually will forget it ever even happened.

Wednesday November 19th, 2014
5:40am - Woke up, showered, played with the cats.
6:20am - Left for work. Smooth commute, got in 10 minutes early.
9:00am - Left work for the doctor's office. Finally went in and talked to a sleep doctor after not sleeping well for 5 years.
Noon - Got back to work from the doctor's office and went to play basketball. I haven't played in about 3 years, so it was great getting back on the court. Also it was a helluva a workout. The nice thing about my job is that I can go do physical fitness during the workday. Getting paid to work out? Awesome.
2:00pm - Got approval to go to Japan for a work trip. I've never been and I am pretty excited about that.
4:30pm - Left work. Went home, internetted, played with the cats, relaxed and watched some TV.
6:45pm - Left home to go play trivia.  My team played extremely well. Not only did we win the toss-up round which netted us a free shot of bartenders choice, we were right in the running at the end. The final question of the 2nd half I got because of my encyclopedic knowledge of John Stuart Mill which sprung us into first place for the final question. Now this trivia is a little weird in that you can bet it all on the final question a la final
jeopardy. The final question was about a retailer founded in Seattle in 1901. Boom. Nordstrom's. Bet it all. We won.
10:00pm - Returned home a champion of the day.

An overdue post

Has in really been 4 months since my last post on the most glorious of blogs?  Where did the summer go? The answers to those questions are: yes and up my butt and around the corner. Although being in Southern California has kind of messed with my perception of time, since the seasonal differences are absent, it is hard to remember how long ago something was without the perceptions of seasons.

So here's the one sentence summary what has happened in the past 4 months. Carly and I bought a house in San Diego, she moved down, she got a job, we've been traveling a bunch. There's more to it than that, but our time has been filled with trips to the beach, working on the house and friends and family. Just this month, three weekends ago I was up in Vancouver for a bachelor party (smoked a Cuban, which was nice), two weekends ago Carly and I were in NorCal wine country for a wedding and then I went to Chicago for a conference. Last weekend Carly's friends visited (so much estrogen in the house). This weekend Carly is in Seattle for a bachelorette party (thus me getting time to blogggg), and on Friday we go to North Carolina for a week.

It's been a fast and dramatic shift over the past five months. I went from renting a place by the beach with minimal possessions and no responsibility to pretty much the complete opposite. It's not all bad though. I must say that I really like being a home owner and I do enjoy working on projects. In July Carly went on a road trip through like 6 national parks with her brother, and instead of sitting on the couch watching Girl Meets World (which is terrific btw) I decided to re-wire my garage. This weekend I was replacing sprinkler control valves.

I'm sure the question most of you are asking is "how's the Jeep?". The Jeep is good and it just made it down here a few weeks ago. I've been still working on it but I'm hoping to get it all worked out and have the doors and top off it in a few weeks. I'll post some pictures here when I do!

At times it still hits me how surreal it is that I live here. When I take in a good vista I usually think back to my 10th grade algebra class. I sat by the window and spent hours looking at the cold snow outside thinking about how someday I would move to a place that was warm and nice and where I could go to the beach all year round. I guess I made it.

  

Another E-mail Post

I suggest starting from the initial email below and then reading my rejoinder. I'm pretty sure I used 6 too many commas in the 4th paragraph.

On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Bryan *******  wrote:

Good Afternoon Brian,

I hope you had a good weekend.

Do you have a few minutes this week to speak about last basketball season?  I was hoping to learn about your experience and get some feedback. Please let me know if there is a good time and day to reach you.

I've also attached more information on your season ticket benefits for this season.

Thank you again for your support and I look forward to speaking with you.

Bryan

---------- Reply message ----------
From: Brian
Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 6:09 PM
Subject: Re: A few minutes to speak?
To: Bryan *******

Hello Bryan,

I had an excellent weekend. Thank you for asking. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

I do have a few minutes to speak about last basketball season, but I suspect that I am not the Brian you are intending to speak to. Unfortunately, I have never attended a Carleton Ravens game, although from what I understand, they had a terrific season capped of with another national championship. Congratulations!

Carleton has been kind enough to send me email updates on the team since the fall of 2012. Despite several attempts to unsubscribe from your e-blasts I remained solidly in-the-know regarding the happenings of the Carleton Ravens. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the Women's Basketball Shoot for the Cure this past February, as I live in California.

Don't get me wrong Bryan, I would love to attend more Carleton games but I simply don't make it to Ottawa enough to take in the action. Although I am a fan of Canadian basketball, especially since the great province of Ontario has produced one of my favorite players, the venerable Nik Stauskas, who happens to play for my Alma Mater, The University of Michigan.

You can reach out to me any time. Stay in touch.

- Brian

P.S. I enjoyed the recent write up on the Men's Basketball Program on Grantland.Com.

On Running

A note: I have no expertise or background in what I'm about to write. This is all straight from my mind, and somewhat stream-of-consciousness.

My current housing arraignment has me living on some beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean. Beyond the crowds that gather nightly to watch the sunset, I've noticed the constant stream of runners going back and forth along the cliffs, much like the running paths along Lake Michigan in Chicago on a warm May evening. I too have been lured off the couch and on to the dirt paths that wind along the top of the cliffs with their mighty views of the Pacific.

This week many of my new co-workers participated as an Ultra team in a Ragnar race from Huntington Beach down to San Diego. It's a 180 mile non-stop 6 man relay race. Each member of the team runs roughly 30 miles over the course of 30-some hours. And they each paid over $300 and each took a vacation day for the privileged. Why would they do that?

Today, while running I was thinking about running, which is usually what I think about when I run. Mostly I think about when I can stop running without feeling like a fatass (which might ruin my internet creditably). But I was also thinking about why people go running. Lot's of people run. In fact, I bet if you if you polled American people my age you would find that as many people have gone for a run in the past year as have gone to the movies. I personally find the movies much more enjoyable. But why do so many people run purely for recreation?

I guess I should make a note on the recreational aspect. I would venture that most of the runners I see are simple running for themselves as a hobby, which probably makes it a very popular hobby, despite the lack of running club memberships, which I guess makes me want to go back and re-read Bowling Alone. Many runners are just running because they want to run. Their job doesn't require them to be able to run long distances, they have no monetary gain in running. They simply run because they decide they want to run. This is especially confusing since there are very few circumstances in modern society that would require running miles at one time. Therefore I assume people run just because they have a desire to run? Where does that desire come from?

That's really what I asked myself as I struggled up a rather small and surmountable hill. As far as I'm aware running for recreation is a relatively new concept and is primarily an American (or at least western) concept. I don't think many people went running 100 years ago. Perhaps because daily life was taxing enough that after hours of chopping firewood the idea of getting physical exercise was a little unnecessary. Yes, perhaps it is an instinctual response to an ever sedentary lifestyle, much like my hamster Stinky's desire to run in his wheel all night.

But why would running be instinctual? Humans don't seem like terrific runners. We're quite slow and have poor endurance. I think that was the reason humans domesticated the horse and cattle and sled-dogs. We're not naturals at moving ourselves. Although many have heard of African tribesmen who run their hunting targets down until they die of exhaustion, so perhaps way deep down we still long for a good run, and we've only found that desire in the past 50 years?

No, no, no. There must be more. I hate running, but I still do it. My other theory is that the pleasure of running outweighs the terribleness of running. I don't run out of excitement, I run out of shame. The shame of sitting on the couch all day eating frozen food is the only motivation I have to run. Afterwards I feel slightly less ashamed of myself. So in that I think I have found something. It makes me feel like we run not out of duty or instinct, but that we run out of a desire to be productive and live everyday with the goal of doing something good and making ourselves sightly better. And somehow the good feelings that come from going on a run can somewhat outweight how awful running really is.

Seriously, I hate running almost as much as I hate blogging.